How Are Onions Relevant to Personal Style?

This week’s musings are inspired by the phrase ‘knowing your onions’. It was a phrase used by a client in a testimonial. I got to pondering, as I do, and came up with a whole host of stuff about onions and how it relates to my work as an empowerer of women.

Read on to discover how a style coach specialising in online programmes that help you ditch the doubts and get out of the style rut, so that you are dressing with confidence, looking good and feeling fab and onions are linked.

My client’s exact words were “I just had the feeling from the very start that I was in very safe hands and you knew your onions.”

There are two elements to that sentence, both of which are equally important for me in my role as a style coach. The fact that she felt she was in safe hands was fantastic because there HAS to be a level of trust from the start of the relationship with my clients. The awesome results and real transformation are achieved when clients open up. We can explore what is stopping them from being truly confident in expressing their identity through their personal style.

Quite often there is baggage around clothes and confidence that is being carried around unnecessarily. Sometimes it’s a mean comment from a sibling, or something a nasty boy said at school and here you are, 40 years later, still not wearing a skirt because somebody once said you had knobbly knees or tree trunk legs.

There are little voices in your head that reinforce those messages, those self-image demons that come out to play when you’re having a bit of a wardrobe wobble.

The thing is, I understand this is not an onion layer that you want to peel back in public. You have a game face that you have to wear in your work environment. You need to be seen as an authority, credible, confident and well respected; your stress about getting dressed and not feeling nice in your clothes these days, has no place in the world of work despite it being how you ACTUALLY feel. It’s a secret that makes you feel a bit silly.

It’s about vulnerability and feeling exposed. (Interestingly, dreaming about onions symbolises disguise and repression.)

This, like onions, is the stuff that you have to keep in the dark, so those little green shoots of doubt about your credibility don’t start sprouting.

By the way, it’s nothing I haven’t heard before and I get it. Releasing that crap and opening up about it can be a bit like chopping onions, it can make you cry.

Truth is, keeping those onions in the dark rather than addressing the issue is preventing you from showing up as the best version of yourself. Your worries about how you look could be holding you back. Food for thought?

Now to the second part of the client’s words about me ‘knowing my onions’…

It means that you are an expert in your field and know a lot about a particular subject.

When I very first started my business as a colour and image consultant, I wasn’t actually acknowledging the fact that ALL of my prior skills, knowledge and experience, had got me to where I was and were even relevant. I was seriously undercharging for my services. As if I was some kind of an apprentice!

Anyway, it was a learning curve. Once I’d put myself out there in the world of business, I gained clarity about how my unique skills set, acquired over 30+ years, were actually my unique selling point!

Rather than considering myself an apprentice I recognised myself as a master of my craft.

Here’s why…

·        A levels in Art, Textiles, Dressmaking

·        C & G Level 3 Award in Cosmetic Make Up

·        BA Hons in Textiles & Fashion Design

·        PGCE in Further Education & Training

·        Studio experience designing for many High St brands

·        Years of teaching across a diverse range of programmes

·        Area Manager Cosmetics Business

·        Self-employment experience

·        Manager of an education department

·        Professional Colour, Style & Image Training

ALL of this stuff, plus ongoing professional development, that I prioritise on a weekly basis, means that I, do indeed, know my onions! And I’m able to bring them all together, to help you find your personal style and image confidence.

And finally, if you’ve ever seen Shrek the movie, you might recall the scene where he is walking through a field of sunflowers with Donkey. They have a chat about ogres being like onions and having layers. The message being about there being more to him than meets the eye.

Now, I’m not for one minute encouraging you to judge a book by it’s cover or to stereotype. BUT it’s a scientific fact that we make judgements about people within microseconds based on all kinds of things – appearance being one of them.*

What I DO advocate, is that you give yourself a much better chance of making the right first impression if you are aware of what your personal style is saying about you. Colours and clothes speak volumes, and your personal image is providing visual clues about you as a person.

So, to summarise, just like us, onions come in all shapes and sizes, different colours and have different strengths. My strengths will be different to yours. We have layers, just like Shrek, parts of our persona that we choose to reveal or conceal.

If you’re concealing some of your persona because of lack of confidence in your personal style and image, be assured that I know my onions and can help you make the transformation. You can shift from ok to awesome in a matter of a few sessions with me. I’m currently taking names onto a waiting list for more info on my new Drab to FAB! Personal Style & Image Confidence Programme that’s launching Jan 2021. Let me know if you want to be added to the list.

https://www.lisanewportstyle.com/